


Little Victories

by merildis



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Anders and Hawke kick some templar ass and then work out some issues in their relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-08
Updated: 2014-10-08
Packaged: 2018-02-20 08:10:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2421467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merildis/pseuds/merildis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She faced the templars without fear, her staff raised. The relaxed ease from before evaporated in an instant; now she stood tall and deadly, her shoulders squared, her chin up, her father’s golden staff glowing faintly in her hand. “You would do best to leave now, if you value your lives.” Her voice was firm. It wasn’t a warning: it was a promise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Victories

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my writing folder for two months and I finally gave in and finished it. It's not even 2k words I really have no idea what to do with it so here you go have fun

Hawke should have expected this. They were ushering a group of apostate mages through the sewers below Darktown, through twisting passages and dark corridors. Normally, Anders wouldn’t have brought Hawke along for trips like this – if the templars found out she was a part of the mage underground, what little protection her title and fortune served her would be gone – but when she caught wind of his plan to escort seven mages to freedom alone, there was no stopping her from coming. And it was a good thing too, because nearly as soon as they had gotten the terrified mages from the Gallows, a group of Templars was hot on their trail. They had managed to slow them down by leaving a trail of paralysis glyphs in their wake, but it couldn’t stop them forever. Now, they stood backed into a corner as a Templar lieutenant approached, blade drawn and leveled toward Hawke’s chest.

“Can’t we talk this out like reasonable people?” Allegra joked even as she moved to stand in front of the frightened mages, her staff extended before her in warning. Anders stood beside her, all coiled muscle and tension, the polar opposite of her relaxed posture that carried over from the effortless way she joked as if their lives weren’t in danger. That was her way – be ready for anything, but always let them think they’re catching you off guard. However, the lieutenant didn’t relent, and the gleaming swords of the men behind him told her that there was little chance of negotiation. One of the arches in the back loosed an arrow that whistled between Anders and Hawke to lodge itself in the wall mere inches above the youngest mage’s head. The girl let out a frightened whimper and Hawke frowned. “Alright. Guess we’re not talking.”

Of course, it shouldn’t have surprised her when Anders and Justice were just as unwilling to talk as the templars were. And yet when his eyes began to glow she jumped slightly, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the spirit she should have come to expect. She hurried to place her hand on his arm and ignored the way the magic in her blood leapt in reaction to the raw Fade the seeped through his skin. “Anders,” she warned, trying to keep her voice down to avoid frightening the apostates who huddled behind them, “calm down, love.”

He didn’t seem to hear her. “You will not take them!” he roared, his voice no longer his own. The templars faltered in their approach for a moment, confused by the mage’s sudden outburst.

They didn’t stop long, but it was enough. Hawke whipped around to face the apostates behind her, “Go! We’ll catch up!” she barked, throwing up a barrier around them she hoped would last long enough for them to get away. Anders still barely perceived her next to him, his glowing eyes locked on the knights, magic sparking from his fingers and charging the air like electricity. Allegra could taste the wildness of it on her tongue like metal and blood and warmth, could feel it surge in her blood and call out to the power that lay within her too. She faced the templars without fear, her own staff raised. The relaxed ease from before evaporated in an instant; now she stood tall and deadly, her shoulders squared, her chin up, her father’s golden staff glowing faintly in her hand. “You would do best to leave now, if you value your lives.” Her voice was firm. It wasn’t a warning: it was a promise.

For the first time that day, what happened next didn’t surprise her. A few of them ran, taking off down the corridor at breakneck speed to escape the wrath of the angered mages, but most of the templars attacked them in full force. She found herself wishing she hadn’t decided to come down with Anders alone and leave the rest of their friends out of this; Aveline’s shield would have been a welcome distraction for the warriors who came at the pair of mages directly. Hawke watched Anders closely as he threw out spells one after another with a recklessness so unlike his normal battle tactics. She knew she wasn’t able to heal him when he was like this, but she tried to keep him safe with barriers and shields anyway.

With one last fireball, the final templar fell, leaving the sewers to fall into a silence that felt to Hawke less like the end of a battle and more like the calm before the storm. “Anders?” She reached out to him after returning her staff to her back, taking his hand gingerly. “Love, it’s over.”

“You let them go,” He turned to face her, the ghostly light still shining beneath his skin. The sound of that voice was foreign and strange from his lips. Allegra tried to hide the fear that made her stomach drop.

“They didn’t have to die. I gave them a chance.” She didn’t dare break eye contact. She knew how unpredictable Justice could be, and so tried to remain steady in the face of his volatile nature. She hoped it was working.

He moved closer to her, his staff still in hand. “You’ve just given them another chance to hurt us,” his voice boomed in the darkness. “You cannot be trusted to help our cause."

There was a moment of tension where time seemed to freeze, then finally Hawke’s composure broke. She tried to scramble away from him only to be met with rough stone against her back. “Anders!” All the calm coolness of her voice before was gone, replaced with hysteria and wild fear. “Anders, it’s me!” Power glowed around them; she could feel the raw energy of the Fade whisper over her skin and make every single one of her hairs stand on end. She called her own power forward to pool in her fingertips and dance under her skin, nowhere near as raw as what Justice summoned, but almost as powerful. "Please, love," panic bubbled in her chest and she forced it down. She knew he could hear her; even when it was Justice and not Anders, she knew he was in there somewhere. She saw him falter for a moment, saw a war play out between parasite and host behind eyes that glowed with cold flame. Tears pricked at her own eyes, called forth by fear for her own life and for the man who threatened her. The silence roared in her ears, every second stretching into eternity.

And then, all at once, it was over. The power that charged the air fell away suddenly and Anders stumbled backward, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "Oh, Maker," he gasped when he saw her cowering against the wall. "Did I-"

"I'm alright," she told him, the tension in her body melting away when the eyes he stared at her with now were brown, not the chilling blue of moments before. "It's okay, you didn't hurt me." Allegra's voice was gentle, reassuring. She took a step toward him, but he staggered back.

"No, no," he said frantically "it's not okay, I could have-" he was still panting, his eyes wild with horror. He ran a hand through his hair and jumped when she was suddenly in front of him, laying her hand on his shoulder. "No!" He jerked back. "No, I can't- I... I have to go."

"Anders!" Allegra called after him, but he didn't turn back.

 

 

She found him exactly where she expected him to be. He was hunched over the rickety desk crammed into the corner of the tiny room he called his own in the clinic, his quill held loosely in his left hand but the parchment before him blank. "Anders?" Hawke called softly, her footsteps quiet on the rough floor. She sat down on the edge of his cot and reached out to brush her fingers over the feathers on his shoulder. "All of the apostates made it out safely," she said.

He didn't look at her, but he didn't recoil from her touch either. "You shouldn't be here."

"And why shouldn't I be? I wanted to make sure you were alright." Hawke chose each of her words carefully, not exactly sure what she should say. "Oh, hey, so you were possessed and you almost killed me, but it’s alright because I don't really blame you" doesn't exactly have a great ring to it.

"I could have killed you," he said, still staring at the blank parchment before him. "You're not safe here. You're not safe anywhere with me.” His voice was thick and his words heavy, falling from his lips like lead weights and pulling him down, down, down into the pit of darkness beneath them that threatened to swallow him whole.

Allegra shook her head and smiled wryly at him. “Oh, Anders,” she murmured, sad and gentle and endlessly fond all at once. She slid her fingers under his chin and cupped his jaw, gently urging him to face her. “Look at me,” the hopelessness that looked back at her from his amber eyes threatened to leave her as broken as he was. “I don’t care what happens. I don’t care what you think you’ve become. I’m not going anywhere, not ever.”

Even after all these years of living in her estate, sleeping in her bed, waking to the touch of her lips every morning, wonder and disbelief still shone in his eyes when she reminded him she loved him as much as he loved her. The stunned silence stretched between them for a moment before he pitched forward, his arms wrapped around her and his face buried against her neck. The cot groaned with the newfound weight, canvas and wood dipping slightly beneath them. “I’m sorry,” Anders whispered, his tears hot against her skin and his fingers digging into her back as if she were the only thing between him and the end – of everything. Of his life, of his sanity, of the world they had built for themselves from the rubble of what they left behind.

Allegra sighed and let her eyes fall closed, breathing in the familiar scent of elfroot and Fade that clung to him and finally feeling her nerves settle. The gaping maw beneath them was slowly closing; he would not fall today, not while she was there to catch him. It was a little victory, but it was theirs. She smiled against his hair. “I forgive you.”


End file.
